1. Field of the Invention
The present invention, in general, relates to apparatus used to shuffle a deck of playing cards and, more particularly, to hand held portable card shuffling devices.
Playing cards are used for a variety of card games which include poker, bridge, solitaire, and other games. The need to randomly shuffle playing cards is as old as are playing cards themselves.
In addition to playing cards, it is desirable to be able to randomly shuffle cards that are use in various board games. For example, the popular board game of "Monopoly" uses two stacks of cards that players draw from in conformity with the roll of dice, which also need to be shuffled randomly prior to commencement of the play.
Card shuffling devices are known. However, they are somewhat complex in structure, which tends to make them expensive to make. As such, their use is limited today to those instances where the cost can be justified.
Accordingly, there exists a real need for an effective card shuffling device that is easy to use and is inexpensive to make.
2. Description of Prior Art
Card shuffling devices, generally, are known. For example, the following patents describe various types of these devices:
U.S. Pat. No. 449,316 to Falkingham, dated Mar. 31, 1891; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 750,216 to Newington, dated Jan. 19, 1904; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 1,434,034 to Aegerter et al, Oct. 31, 1922; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,208,459 to Krueger, dated Jul. 16, 1940; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,312 to Delgado et al, Dec. 20, 1983; PA1 British Patent 4016 to Wells, that issued Feb. 11, 1893; PA1 German Patent 252902 to V. Edler Von Pebal, Mar. 16, 1912.
While the structural arrangements of the above described devices, at first appearance, have-similarities with the present invention, they differ in material respects. These differences will be described in more detail hereinafter, since they admit of the effective use of the invention and since they admit of the advantages that are not available with the prior devices.